1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to methods for automatically identifying broadcast programs, and more particularly to a practical and economical method of using computerized pattern recognition to identify large numbers of programs, such as commercial advertisements, broadcast by television and radio stations.
The term "program" is used herein in a generic sense to include any complete programming entity such as a news or entertainment show, a commercial, a record, etc. Hundreds of thousands of such programs are boradcast each day by commercial television and radio stations. There are many needs for information relating to this broadcasting activity that can only be satisfied by some form of direct monitoring of the broadcasts themselves.
For example, advertisers need information that would verify the broadcasts of their commercials. Advertising agencies, advertisers, and broadcasters need information relating to the scope, volume, and timing of broadcasts of commercials. Performing artists need data relating to payments of residuals and royalties. Program suppliers need verification of broadcaster compliance with provisions of contrasts for purchases of program rights. Record companies need information relating to the amount of air-play of records. And networks need information concerning broadcasts (or "clearances") by affiliated stations of network programming.
These needs have never been fully nor economically met by manual monitoring efforts. Moreover, the automated systems that heretofore have been developed have either failed to perform reliably and economically, have caused unacceptable degradation of the program quality, or have resulted in inefficient use of limited spectrum space.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There have been two general methods used in developing these automatic program identification systems in the prior art: identification encoding, and pattern recognition.